Say you have a blimp, and you need to park it for a while. You know, run the kids in to karate class, or take the missus to a movie. But blimps are big, and somewhat unwieldy—so to help out, we’ve ascertained just how to dock your giant airship, from the experts at Goodyear. These guys have been parking blimps for more than 100 years, and we got the goods on how it’s done at the company’s big reveal for its newest blimp, which is actually, by design, a zeppelin:

You’ll Need:

1 blimp

1 enormous hangar

1 landing spot

2–4 diesel-powered tow “mules”

1 custom-built “mast truck”

1. Land

With Goodyear’s old blimp, landing involved putting the ship into a somewhat disconcerting dive and sweeping it close to the ground where a gaggle of handlers grabbed hanging ropes and physically hauled it in. The new zeppelin’s “vectored” engines allow it to maneuver much like a helicopter, so pilots can precisely set it down on its landing gear—no handlers needed.

2. Dock to Mast Truck (Which, By the Way, Is Awesome)

Don’t have a 64,000-pound, eight-wheeled, quad-axle custom “mast truck” lying around? Parking your blimp might be difficult without one. After landing, the blimp’s nose is attached to a remote-controlled mast atop Goodyear’s awesome Mack-built rig. The truck features a 455-hp diesel engine, which drives the rear two axles through an Allison six-speed transmission, a custom Mack Granite chassis, and a footprint just compact enough to avoid “oversize load” status. This allows it to travel with the blimp without requiring a special permit.

A shaft off the Allison transmission drives a hydraulic pump, which powers the mast tower, stabilizing outriggers, and hydraulic drive for the front two axles. Available only in first gear, this hydraulic drive enables low-speed eight-wheel drive, which is necessary for slogs through fields where the blimp often must land when away from home. For field-parking jobs, Goodyear deploys all four outriggers, but for hangar stowage, just forward arms are extended.

3. Link to “Mules”

After being fixed to the mast truck, the other end of the blimp is tied to a pair of “mules” to keep it from yawing side-to-side. On especially windy days, Goodyear sometimes uses an additional pair of the rigs, which resemble airplane pushers, to keep the blimp stabilized.

With the blimp firmly accounted for, the mast truck and mules slowly “walk” the ship from the landing zone into the hangar. The mules’ wheels can turn nearly 90 degrees, allowing them to “crab” to keep the blimp on course in windy conditions. Similarly, with its two parking outriggers deployed, the mast truck can operate in 23-mph winds without tipping. (Fun fact: With all four outriggers deployed, the truck can handle the blimp against 90-mph side winds.)

5. Attach Power-Circulation Rig

See that little metal basket hanging off the gondola’s nose? That’s a rig filled with power-transmission cables that feed electrical power to the blimp from a generator on the mast truck when the engines are powered down, and it must be attached once the blimp is parked. Even when docked, the blimp needs power to manage its buoyancy and other ancillary functions.